47 (number) - in Pop Culture

In Pop Culture

The 47 society is an outgrowth of the "movement" started at Pomona College. They explore the belief that 47 occurs in nature more frequently than other numbers and share their personal sightings in consideration of 47 being "the quintessential random number".

The tale of the Forty-seven Ronin is an historical Japanese story, based upon actual events that took place in year 1701 of the Western calendar. It is mentioned in John Frankenheimer's movie Ronin.

In the 2001 TV series Alias, the number 47 bears a specific significance concerning the Milo Rambaldi mythology. Among other things, page 47 of the Rambaldi manuscript contains the prophecy regarding the Chosen one and the Passenger. The number also often appears in different places through the series, for example in keycodes, safe-deposit boxes, hotel rooms or the number of victims in different attacks or accidents. It also appears as the same way in the 2008 TV series Fringe, which has the same creator as Alias.

The number 47 also appears in music. 47 is the number of miles of barbed wire walked by the singer of Bo Diddley's "Who Do You Love". In 1998, Japanese electronic musician Takako Minekawa released the album Cloudy Cloud Calculator, which featured a song about the number 47 entitled "Kangaroo Pocket Calculator". The song repeats, "47 is a magical number. 47 plus 2 equals 49. 47 times 2 equals 94. 49 and 94. 94 and 49. Relationship between 47 and 2… is magic" and eventually concludes, "Isn't it a coincidence?" Leslie Sarony published his song "Forty-Seven Ginger-Headed Sailors" in 1928. Forty-seven is the usual number strings of a pedal harp. 47 is a song by Sunny Day Real Estate. Object 47 (named as the 47th release in the discography) is the name of an album release from Wire.

In video games, the main character of the Hitman series is known only by the name Agent 47. In Half-Life 2: Episode One, the protagonist, Gordon Freeman, begins the game with 47 points of health.

In National Treasure: Book of Secrets, the President asks Ben Gates to let him know what is on "page 47" of "the presidents book of secrets", which contains the national secrets of the U.S. presidents.

47 appears on the top of the police van in the Nicolas Cage film, Snake Eyes.

In David Lynch's movie Inland Empire, the film being shot is a remake of a doomed Polish feature named "47". In that film, the protagonist is trapped in "Room 47".

'47' is the fourth track on New Found Glory's 2009 album, Not Without a Fight. The song features the chorus: "I called you 46 times, and you answered on the 47th."

In J.J. Abrams' SUPER 8, one of the characters, "Charles" is trying to create and enter a film. Part of the film takes place in "warehouse 47"

47 is the total numbers of balloons that a player can collect in Rareware's Nintendo 64 game Diddy Kong Racing.

The Wild, Wild West is a song by The Escape Club from their similarly named debut album, Wild Wild West that begins with the verse "Forty seven dead beats living in the back street/north east west south all in the same house/sitting in a back room waiting for the big boom/I'm in a bedroom waiting for my baby".

In the 2011 American spy film Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol produced by J.J. Abrams, train car #47 is the team's safehouse. At the end of the movie the team also meets up at Pier 47 in Seattle, WA.